In May, the Texas State Board of Education proposed an update to the state’s K-5 Reading Language Arts (RLA) curriculum. Almost immediately, report after report described the proposed curriculum as “Bible-infused,” “blending religious teaching,” boosting “biblical content” and seeking to “inject Bible stories into elementary school reading.” If the Board of Education approves of the program, school districts will have a big incentive to adopt it for the 2025-26 school year – because they would receive an additional $60 per student. That’s a lot of money for public schools facing a budget crisis after years of being woefully underfunded.
Before the Texas State Board of Education can approve the proposed curriculum, however, it must take comments from the public. Last Friday, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (along with the presidents of the El Paso, Houston and San Antonio AU chapters) provided feedback on the misguided and unconstitutional proposal.
Religious freedom is a foundational American value. It ensures that we each get to decide for ourselves what to believe about religion. And it means that students and their parents – not state government officials or their local public schools – have the right to decide whether and how to pursue religious education. As the U.S. Supreme Court has explained, families “entrust public schools with the education of their children, but condition their trust on the understanding that the classroom will not purposely be used to advance religious views that may conflict with the private beliefs of the student and his or her family.” This trust is critical because families and students in Texas practice a wide variety of religions and faiths, and many are nonreligious.
Yet, the proposed curriculum violates this trust – it is designed to instill religion and promote Christianity and the Bible, in violation of the Constitution. For example, although the proposed curriculum goes out of its way to ensure students understand that Greek and Roman myths are “fiction” and “not true,” the lessons on Christianity repeatedly say the Bible “explains” things, which would lead young students to understand they should believe what’s in the Bible as a matter of history and of faith.
The most egregious example, though, comes from an art lesson specifically aimed at kindergarten students – who are just four to six years old. The Teacher’s Guide for a lesson on art based on creation stories says that the Book of Genesis “includes a description of creation,” “starts to describe how the early Earth looked” and “explains that after God created the world, he created humanity in his own image.” The statements are written as declarations of fact, and kindergartners – who are very impressionable because of their age – are sure to believe they are true.
The art lesson for kindergarteners also asks students to memorize and repeat back passages from the Bible. Students must repeat back that “Let there be light” is the phrase used at the start of the creation story. And students are also expected to remember the order of creation from the Book of Genesis:
As our comments explain, this lesson is purely devotional and has no secular purpose – it is no different from a Sunday School lesson.
The public comment period is not the end of the road in the effort to stop this proposed curriculum. There will be an in-person public hearing in September where Texans will have the opportunity to show up and testify to the Texas State Board of Education about the constitutional problems with the lessons. And if the board decides to adopt it anyway, concerned residents will be able to go to their school boards and urge them to reject the updated curriculum. We know that if public schools are used to usurp families’ rights to teach about religion, it sows distrust in our schools and divides our communities. That’s why this proposed curriculum, with its promotion of Christianity and the Bible, is so troubling. It violates religious freedom, which has been fundamental to our country since its founding.
If you want to learn more about how the proposed curriculum crosses constitutional lines, check out this independent analysis commissioned by our friends at the Texas Freedom Network and conducted by Dr. David Brockman, a religious studies scholar and Christian theologian at Rice University. Whether you’re a Texan who wants to follow along in this fight or a resident of another state who is afraid this will happen in other parts of the country, sign up for AU’s email list to keep up to date on our work.
